Principal's Report

I welcome all community members back to the 2025 school year. We have had a very positive start to the year as I have mentioned in my previous communications, but in particular I would like to recognise our Year 7 students. Starting secondary school, is equal parts exciting and scary, and the student positivity and dedication to displaying our school values of respect, determination and excellence, has been outstanding.  

At the beginning of the year, I have the pleasure of being able to welcome new staff into our Woodmans Hill Secondary College school community. Welcome to:  

Amy Walker: English 

Jennifer Patton: English & Humanities  

Chris Dunn: Mathematics 

Leah Kerr: HAPE & Psychology 

Ashley Vincent-Wade: Humanities & Sports coordinator  

Amelia Beasley: Humanities 

Josh Wells: Humanities & Year 8/9 Level Leader Assistant  

Kirstie Smith: English  

Keele Hillas: HAPE & Year 9 Year Level Leader 

Jess Schroeter: Art 

Carla Quigley: Mental Health Practitioner Occupational Therapist 

Each new staff member will be wonderful advocates for your young people and fantastic educators. We are rapt to have them on our team.  

As mentioned in my principal’s round up, the school is currently mid-way through our School Review, led by the lovely Julie Myers – School Reviewer. We have completed day 1 which was an overview/reflection on what we have achieved in the last four years and to assess the data sets such as NAPLAN, VCE results as well as Parent/Caregiver and Student Attitudes to School Surveys to examine if we have met the data goals that we set for the school in 2021. This was a validating and supportive first day and a real celebration of the Woodman Way!  

Day 2 of the Review will be happening next week on Wednesday 19th February and this is called the fieldwork day. Fieldwork is a deep dive into the school to examine the classroom teaching and learning practices as well as hearing from key stakeholders in forums. I welcome parents once again to sign up for our Parent Forum on Wednesday 19th February at 8.30am – 9.00am. You can sign up by following this link https://forms.gle/4xJrUqVQVzBrkRj8A . 

Each year the school creates an Annual Implementation Plan which sets goals and targets for the year ahead. This year, we will be focusing on two key goals:  

Goal 1: 

To improve student learning growth and achievement for all students in Years 7 to 12. 

Goal 2: 

To improve the engagement of all students from Year 7 to 12. 

Below, I have provided you with more detail about key actions that we will take and our yearly targets data sets that we will use to measure success.  

All staff, teaching and education support, will be working towards these goals.  

Finally, I would like to remind parents about our call for nominations for Woodmans Hill Secondary College School Council. School Council is a vital part of the school community and is responsible for a broad range of functions such as the broad direction and vision of the school in the local community.  

We are looking for new or existing parents to join our School Council. Our council meets on Wednesday evenings from 6:00pm-7.30pm and whilst we hope to greet parents onsite, will be offering the ability to join remotely in 2025.  

We have a range of parent and community members available on the current council and please see the post on Compass for more details and nomination forms. Nominations must be received by February 24th at 4:00pm. I am very much looking forward to welcoming new members to our School Council.  

Annual Implementation Plan 2025: